Entertainment Made Simples: Consistency, Pre-Testing & Proven Effectiveness
On Boxing Day, Compare the Market launched its new brand creative platform with a clear goal, to reinforce its proposition, “the simples way to save.”
On a mission to make saving simples, the brand wanted to remind customers that Compare the Market helps them save not just money, but time. The less time people spend comparing, the more time they can reclaim for themselves, their “me time”.
Ahead of launch, Compare the Market needed confidence that these objectives were landing clearly, resonating emotionally, and creating a lasting, memorable impact with consumers.
Compare the Market turned to System1’s Test Your Ad platform to pre-test rough cuts before analysing the finished 30-second and 60-second films. The aim was to ensure the new campaign stayed true to the characterful, brand-building storytelling audiences know and love, while using historic benchmarks to learn from past successes and identify opportunities for improvement, both now and in future campaigns.
With advertising becoming less engaging and the media environment more challenging than ever, the brand set out to create something genuinely entertaining, a welcome relief for consumers. System1’s emotional measures, including Star Rating, predicting long-term brand growth, and Spike Rating, indicating short-term sales potential, were used to assess both entertainment and commercial value. Outputs such as humour, uplift, and Types of Happiness were also measured.
By comparing rough cut performance with the finished film, Compare the Market used System1’s Guidance offering to understand how effectively learnings from the first round of testing had been applied.
The campaign also aimed to tap into surprise, putting the well-loved, but often downtrodden, Sergei in the spotlight like never before. Released from the mundane, he fully embraces his newfound “me time”. The ad follows Sergei as he sorts his savings, with the help of AutoSergei and Compare the Market, of course, and reclaims time for himself, landing the message of just how enjoyable life can be when things are made simples. System1’s second-by-second emotional response data enabled the brand to pinpoint whether this feeling of surprise and relief was successfully delivered.
Consistent consumer testing paid off. The 60-second hero edit achieved an exceptional 5.5 Star Rating and an exceptional Spike Rating, well above the category average of 2.5 Stars. It became the second-best-performing Compare the Market ad in System1 history, and one of the strongest in the entire comparison category in the Test Your Ad Competitive Edge database.
The campaign once again proved the enduring entertainment value of Compare the Market’s characters, driving significant amusement and uplift, with clear spikes in surprise during Sergei’s now-famous “naked pool” moment.
The results also demonstrate the power of consistency and long-term investment in fluent brand devices. Despite more than 15 years of presence, the meerkats show no signs of waning appeal, with this campaign marking an exciting new chapter in their story.
Testing also helped identify key scenes and imagery for out-of-home executions, ensuring consistency with the TV campaign. Sergei floating in the pool, identified as the highest point of Happiness in the ad, translated seamlessly to outdoor, supporting memorability and brand recall.
“Our latest campaign is a call to the nation to reclaim their ‘me time’. Managing finances can often feel like a chore, so we’re reminding customers just how good it feels when you do it the simples way, saving both time and money,” said David Sandall, Compare the Market.
“In a low-attention era, creativity matters more than ever. Brands can buy share of voice, but it is creative effectiveness that drives long-term growth. With Aleksandr and Sergei, we are fortunate to have some of the most distinctive brand assets possible. The real test is how to keep them engaging after more than 15 years.”
"Creative effectiveness matters more than ever, and early, consistent pre-testing with System1 plays a vital role in our creative process. VCCP have delivered top-drawer creativity that pairs our distinctive brand characters with humour, with System1’s insights showing just how strongly it resonates with consumers."
David Sandall Compare the Market
As World leaders in predicting and improving advertising effectiveness, Test Your Ad provides the most accurate/predictive metrics.